Multi-mode mission planning and optimization for autonomous agricultural vehicles

• US 10,394,238 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2017
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autonomous Solutions, Inc., CNH Industrial America LLC (CNH Industrial N.V.)
• Original Assignee: CNH Industrial America LLC (CNH Industrial N.V.)
• Inventors: Foster, Christopher A., Bunderson, Nathan Eric, Morwood, Daniel John, Turpin, Bret Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Sood, Anshul
• Application Number:
  US15/400,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20170192431A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 69/008 automatic
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0217 in accordance with energy consumption, time reduction or distance reduction criteria
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for controlling one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles includes generating a number of mission plans for the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles, determining a plan value for each of the number of mission plans, selecting a mission plan with the highest plan value, and executing the selected mission plan to control the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles.

Claims

1. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by a processor, are configured to:

generate a first mission plan based at least in part on inputs, wherein the first mission plan comprises at least a route and a driving speed for at least one agricultural vehicle to initially execute at a beginning of an operation;

generate a second mission plan at least when one or more of the inputs change in response to one or more events that occur during the operation, wherein the second mission plan comprises at least one modification to the first mission plan;

generate a third mission plan comprising at least one modification to the first mission plan or the second mission plan via one or more optimization techniques that reduce a cost function having adjustable weight factors;

determine respective plan values for the first, second, and third mission plans;

select the first, second, or third mission plan based on the respective plan values; and

output the selected mission plan to the at least one agricultural vehicle for execution.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the adjustable weight factors comprise an amount of time to complete the operation, a cost of fuel, a total harvest volume, an efficiency of the operation, soil compaction, field entry/exit points, task precision, or some combination thereof.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one modification comprises a modification to the route, a modification to an assignment of the at least one agricultural vehicle for portions of the operation when the at least one agricultural vehicle comprises a plurality of agricultural vehicles, a modification to one or more settings of the at least one agricultural vehicle, a modification to a speed of the at least one agricultural vehicle, or some combination thereof.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more optimization techniques comprise branch and bound searching, predictive modeling, linear programming, convex optimization, path planning, multi-agent planning, or some combination thereof.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the processor, are configured to:

focus the one or more optimization techniques on a selected portion of the third mission plan to enhance the selected portion of the third mission plan based on user input;

or

modify the third mission plan based on user input.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more events comprise a detected obstacle in a field on which the operation is performed, one of the at least one agricultural vehicle becoming unavailable when the at least one agricultural vehicle comprises a plurality of agricultural vehicles, one of the at least one agricultural vehicle becoming available when the at least one agricultural vehicle comprises a plurality of agricultural vehicles, a change in a weather condition, a detected maintenance condition of the at least one agricultural vehicle, or some combination thereof.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the inputs comprise a number of agricultural vehicles available to perform the operation, a size of the field, a terrain of the field, a position of the at least one agricultural vehicle, a type of the at least one agricultural vehicle available, a type of the operation to be performed, or some combination thereof.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the processor, are configured to prompt a user to accept the first, second, or third mission plan before outputting the selected mission plan to the at least one agricultural vehicle.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, are configured to execute a general planner that generates the first mission plan, to execute a reactive planner that generates the second mission plan, and to execute an optimizing planner that generates the third mission plan, and to execute a mission planning arbitrator that determines the plan values and selects between the first, second, and third mission plans.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the processor, are configured to execute the optimizing planner concurrently with the reactive planner and the mission planning arbitrator, and to provide the third mission plan to the mission planning arbitrator when the third mission plan is generated.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the mission planning arbitrator is configured to output the second or third mission plan to the at least one agricultural vehicle during the operation.

12. A system for controlling at least one autonomous agricultural vehicle, comprising:

a controller configured to execute a mission planning and optimization system (MPOS), wherein the MPOS comprises;

a general planner configured to generate a first mission plan based at least in part on inputs to be initially executed by the at least one autonomous agricultural vehicle at a beginning of an operation on a field;

a reactive planner configured to generate a second mission plan when at least one or more of the inputs change in response to one or more events that occur during the operation, wherein the second mission plan comprises at least one modification to the first mission plan;

an optimizing planner configured to generate a third mission plan concurrently with the first mission plan, the second mission plan, or a combination thereof, wherein the third mission plan comprises at least one modification to the first mission plan or the second mission plan via one or more optimization techniques that reduce a cost function having adjustable weight factors; and

a mission planning arbitrator configured to;

receive the first, second, and third mission plans;

determine respective plan values for the first, second, and third mission plans;

select the first, second, or third mission plan based on the respective plan values; and

output the selected mission plan to the at least one agricultural vehicle for execution.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the adjustable weight factors comprise an amount of time to complete the operation, a cost of fuel, a total harvest volume, an efficiency of the operation, soil compaction, field entry/exit points, task precision, or some combination thereof.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one modification comprises a modification to a route, a modification to an assignment to the at least one agricultural vehicle for portions of the operation, a modification to one or more settings of the at least one agricultural vehicle, a modification to a speed of the at least one agricultural vehicle, or some combination thereof.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the optimizing planner is configured to restart generation of the third mission plan to account for the at least one or more of the inputs that change in response to one or more events that occur during the operation.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the optimizing planner is configured to:

focus the one or more optimization techniques on a selected portion of the third mission plan to enhance the selected portion of the third mission plan based on user input;

or

modify the third mission plan based on user input.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the optimizing planner is configured to generate the third mission plan when the at least one autonomous agricultural vehicle is offline.

18. A method for controlling one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles, comprising:

generating a plurality of mission plans for the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles;

determining a plan value for each of the plurality of mission plans;

selecting a mission plan with the highest plan value; and

executing the selected mission plan to control the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles;

wherein the plurality of mission plans comprise;

a first mission plan that is based at least in part on inputs and comprises an initial route and speed for the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles to perform an operation on a field;

a second mission plan that comprises at least one modification to the first mission plan based at least on a change to the inputs; and

a third mission plan that comprises at least one modification to the first mission plan or the second mission plan via one or more optimization techniques that reduce a cost function having adjustable weight factors.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second mission plan and the third mission plan are generated after the one or more autonomous agricultural vehicles begin executing the first mission plan.